Graduating senior Kimberly Lockwood ('12) entered the field of Psychology at Occidental based on her dual-interest in biology and psychology, but during her four years here she has dedicated herself to seeking out opportunities both within the department and in the external Los Angeles community. This avid pursuit across the field, from health studies to Social Psychology Dialogue, has helped Kimberly strive toward a professional career in the field of Psychology.
Kimberly Lockwood
Portland, Oregon
Kimberly’s attraction to the field of psychological physiology prompted her honors research project on the
relation of emotions and learning on physiological responses. In the summer of 2011, Kimberly began examining
participants’ physiological responses under a fear conditioning paradigm that correlated learning and cognitive
processes. Her preliminary findings revealed humans fail to learn a higher order conditioned fear response – unless
it was a stimulus they are evolutionary predisposed to fear. Humans are biologically prepared or preconditioned to
learn fear to certain phobic objects: snakes, spiders, and angry faces. This conditioned fear is persistent and
difficult to unlearn. Specifically in her work, Kimberly discovered this biological preparedness overrides the
conditioning of a second learning paradigm. Ultimately these preconditioned responses are a very strong determinant
of what humans learn to fear.
Kimberly has presented these findings at the Southern California Conference on
Undergraduate Research (SCCUR) and the National Conference for Undergraduate Research. Currently, she is applying
to other conferences in Washington.
In addition to her research on fear conditioning, in September 2011 Kimberly started working at the University of
Southern California as a test administrator in a longitudinal twin study on psychopathy. This project has been going
on since 2001 with participants who began as 8 year olds now returning at 18 years of age. In the fall of 2011 Kimberly
trained to become a test administrator; these duties included assisting participants in multiple physiological and
survey paradigms over the course of a 6-hour testing session. Not only has this project increased Kimberly’s knowledge
in the abnormal field of psychology, but also provided great insight into the risk factors of dealing with this clientele.
As well as this active interest in the research areas of psychology, Kimberly worked diligently within the Intergroup
Dialogue Program. In the past she participated in the facilitator training course, which allowed her to work with a
smaller group of students to establish a new section of the dialogue program called “Desirability Difficult Dialogues.”
In this specific section of Dialogue, Kimberly worked with fellow student facilitators under Professor Rodriguez to develop
a curriculum for smaller-scale dialogue courses that only met one or two times, rather than a semester long course.
This development process allowed Kimberly to undergo social justice education training and to familiarize herself with
the most effective teaching methods. Ultimately this experience took Kimberly’s passion for the general discipline of
psychology and expanded her abilities to benefit the Occidental community at large.
Apart from this success within the Psychology Major, Kimberly remained an active member of the Occidental community
both as a member of the Occidental Dance Team and as Vice President of Mortar Board. As a member of the Occidental
Dance Team she worked tirelessly to bring spirited performances both to the Oxy campus as well as national competitions
during her undergraduate career. As Vice President of Mortar Board one of Kimberly’s duties included planning the
“Last Lecture Series.” This program invites professors from around Oxy to give talks about topics they are personally
passionate about.
In describing her obvious success both at Occidental as well as within her Psychology major, Kimberly comments,
“The single most important thing I’ve experienced in the Psych Department is that it is really important to develop
close ties with your professors, and this is very possible at Oxy. They are a really valuable resource to learn about
future options and be mentors to guide you through the process. You don’t have to be immediately tied to one professor
as they are all there to help you. I’ve had a really good mentoring experience with the professors in the department and
I am really grateful for everything they have done for me.”
After graduation Kimberly is planning on taking a year to work in the field with the long-term goal of applying
to Health Psychology PhD programs for the fall of 2013. She feels this area ties strongly to her psychophysiology
work combining the physical ramifications of stress on the body and how the mind and body interact. In particular Kimberly
is interested in working with women and anxiety coping.
Special thanks to Caitlin Cole for authoring this feature!
Past features:
Michael Adams (Class of 2008)
Molly Frolich (Class of 2009)
Rachel Yoo (Class of 2011)
Lizet Acosta (Class of 2011)